[09x04] February 18th, 2007

[EndlessCorners]

Did you guys notice that when the rocket crashed there was this weird tank like vehicle in the foreground that emits a puff of smoke?

[Manic Moran]

Originally Posted by Onden

My original reason for thinking it was scripted was the explosion which was way, way too big for the couple of solid fuel boosters left in the Robin, so I figured it was packed with some purpose made explosives.

After having seen a bunch of explosions with the Mk1 eyeball, it looked pretty real to me. No 'flames' like a typical Hollywood (or TG) explosion, and you'll be surprised how much of a bang you can get out of something the size of a hand grenade, let alone a rocket.

However, upon looking at the frame by frame, as some others have, it is very clear that the explosion is a completely different shot.

And they built a second shuttle just to blow it up? You can see the car and fuel tank impact into the ground when you go frame by frame.

NTM

[otispunkmeyer]

Originally Posted by EndlessCorners

Did you guys notice that when the rocket crashed there was this weird tank like vehicle in the foreground that emits a puff of smoke?

the launch site was a military shooting range by the sounds of it, hence the unexploded bombs.

i reckon

1) they cut in footage they had at the base that featured test rounds/bombs

or

2) the robin actually landed on an unexploded bomb


eitherway, a big explosion was called for becuase it just finished the film off so well.

[Demigod555]

They need to stop with the plugs, its really irritating.

[AnGuRuSO]

Originally Posted by Demigod555

They need to stop with the plugs, its really irritating.

It is, I hope Jeremy stays true to his word and does harass someone plugging a shit movie/cd/book. Although he didn't say anything to Hugh Grant about his most recent movie. Maybe it is good, I haven't seen it.

[Crash]

Great episode! The rocket bit had me down in tears LMAO.

[RoverAndy]

Excellent episode, if not short on car footage. The shooting of the Porsche at night was a little dissapointing.

[Werner]

Very nice ep, i loved the 911 Turbo test, nice to see a car on-the-road-review instead of the airfield. laughed my ass of during the reliant robin shooting into space

[MASHBY]

Great Episode to bad the Reliant didnt according to plan.
Motocycle on the cool wall very very funny
Glad TPD is back.

[bartboy9891]

Originally Posted by rice h8r

Hello teh OT!!! I'm still alive and kickin!

alright, but this point was that Top Gear had a SL65 in the studio and JC refers to it as the SL65, but he states all the facts of the SL600....
I hate it when these magazine or TV presenters make mistakes, they're not as smart/well informed as some of us, we need to take over!!! edit: I meant people like us should have their jobs...
I've also noticed that on TG they always called the blow off valve(BOV)/Bypass valve(BPV) the wastegate. The wastegate is the thing on the turbo that controls the boost, not the thing that makes the sounds you refer to you idiots!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Also Clarkson said the 997 Turbo weighs less than the F430, but it actually weighs 300 lbs more.

[plefno]

best... top gear... EVER! I completely agree with Jeremy. Motorcycles do not belong on the cool wall even if they made a special horribly uncool crap section specifically for them. Also the show's producers have completely lost their mind and run out of ideas for random segments to do. Next I suppose they'll turn a Honda Fit into a submarine and take it to the Marianas Trench.

I also think that the "launch" was probably a fake. I think they may have actually launched the real thing off the launchpad, but I think the rest of the flight was probably just a model. It was still cool though regardless of whether it was fake or not.

[Spazatao]

What a fantastic hour! Good reviews, the first one of a tuned car if I remember. And the shuttle... what a tragic end! I really thought that thing woudn't even lift off... not only it did that but worked so well until that small little problem "It was only one iceberg that sunk the Titanic!" Loved it, really did!

[Onden]

Originally Posted by Manic Moran

And they built a second shuttle just to blow it up? You can see the car and fuel tank impact into the ground when you go frame by frame.

No, I fully believe the "shuttle" hit the ground, I'm just saying it hit the ground and that it's. The explosion was a completely different shot spliced in right after the shuttle hits the ground.

Here's the last frame where the shuttle is visible hitting the ground:


This is the exact next frame, completely different background and no bits of shuttle visible.


Maybe, as some others have suggested, you want to say it's a different camera shot, but here's the real clincher - they must have awfully flame-retardent grass in the UK....


Well, they were bound to forget one little detail. You can't really argue with that one; I don't care how wet grass is, it doesn't survive an explosion like that.

[Gonoc]

Originally Posted by MASHBY

Glad TPD is back.

I wouldn't bet on that since filming was finished last year, so the tests and such we are seeing now was actually filmed during last summer. Maybe TGD is back, but its not been in the studio yet.

[_HighVoltage_]

Yeah the explosion was a bit Hollywood-ish and it definetely wasn't real. I'm just curious though, if the Reliant had separated, where was it supposed to land??? In the field, on the grass????

[Gonoc]

Originally Posted by Onden

This is the exact next frame, completely different background and no bits of shuttle visible.

So they had more than one camera covering the take-off/flight/landing, that is hardly new is it?

Originally Posted by Onden

Well, they were bound to forget one little detail; you can't really argue with that one, I don't care how wet the grass is, it doesn't survive an explosion like that.

Maybe it does or maybe they cleaned up the scene and setup that shot to make it look better. I bet blackened and burned grass would have upset a lot of "tree-huggers" like when he drove that Land Rover up on that mountain

[Onden]

Originally Posted by Gonoc

Maybe it does or maybe they cleaned up the scene and setup that shot to make it look better. I bet blackened and burned grass would have upset a lot of "tree-huggers" like when he drove that Land Rover up on that mountain

Riiiiiiiight...

[TomCat]

Originally Posted by otispunkmeyer

yeah it did, but sometimes they just cant do it. they can only do it if porsche give them a car and let them do it. they cant if porsche say "if you wanna drive it you have to come up to scotland or something and you will have 1 day with the car"

so there is abit more to it than just JC n co deciding what does and doesnt go round the track like some people seem to think.

i'd imagine they'd be up for putting all sports cars round the track, but if the manufacturer makes it so they cant, or explicitly says NO like bugatti then they really have to abide by that.

Yeah, that's understandable. It's usually the case where the car they test is different from the car the Stig takes around the track. I imagine it happens quite often where they spend a day with a test car filming the segment and another separate day for the Stig terrorizing the runways. And then they show both segments in the same episode.

I can't imagine Porsche not wanting TopGear to have full access to the new 911 Turbo though, it seems like most car builders would do anything to have TopGear test their goods. I mean, they gave Jeremy Clarkson a Bugatti Veyron to drive across Europe. That's a lot of mileage and risk for a million dollar supercar.

Heck, even Koenigsegg gave TopGear a new CCX after they crashed the first one.

[Manic Moran]

Originally Posted by Onden

Maybe, as some others have suggested, you want to say it's a different camera shot, but here's the real clincher - they must have awfully flame-retardent grass in the UK....

Well, they were bound to forget one little detail. You can't really argue with that one; I don't care how wet grass is, it doesn't survive an explosion like that.

One of my tanks put an MPAT (Explosive) round into a car once... Other than the windows being blown out, the boot being removed, and fragmentation damage, the car was surprisingly unsinged despite it being obviously on the receiving end of explosives.

I can only assume it's an issue of speed of explosion. Happens so fast that there is no singing. By way of example, this was a car bomb with enough 105mm rounds in the back to obliterate the car. Note how unsinged the grass is.

http://data.primeportal.net/iraq/carbomb1.jpg

Similarly, a truck bomb made a crater this size in the tarmac. (Which, if you compare to the lack of a crater from the car bomb, indicates relative size). Note that the nearby concrete barriers are also completely unsinged.
http://data.primeportal.net/iraq/Strykertop.JPG

Now, looking at the two frames posted earlier, it is possible it's a put-on as opposed to just a different angle, I'll grant you. But your grass logic is still wrong.

NTM

[MASHBY]

Originally Posted by Gonoc

I wouldn't bet on that since filming was finished last year, so the tests and such we are seeing now was actually filmed during last summer. Maybe TGD is back, but its not been in the studio yet.

Good point Gonoc forgot that.So I guess TGD isnt back